Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy sets forth the policies of DISCOVER FIRST STEP with respect to nonpublic personal information you provide to us through this web site (the "Site"). These policies may be changed at any time, in which case the revised Privacy Policy will apply to information collected after the date the Privacy Policy is changed and posted. By using our Site, you consent to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy.- Our Policy. We recognize the value of your privacy and appreciate concerns you may have about information you provide to us when you visit us online and how we treat that information. We encourage you to read this entire Privacy Policy as it sets forth our policies with respect to personal information you provide us through our Site. Other privacy practices may apply to information you provide to us through other channels. Personal information refers to information that allows us to identify you, such as your name, address, zip/postal codes, telephone number, organization name if applicable, e-mail address, etc.
Your privacy is important. This statement outlines the School’s Policy on how the School uses and manages personal information provided to or collected by the School.
The School is bound by the Indian Privacy Laws & Acts. The School may, from time to time, review and update this Privacy Policy to take account of new laws and technology, changes to the School’s operations and practices and to make sure the Policy remains appropriate to the changing school environment.
2. Personal Information Collected. We maintain this Site for informational purposes and in order to facilitate your interaction with us. At our Site, we only collect personally identifiable data when voluntarily and knowingly submitted by a visitor. You can have general access to our Site and browse pages describing our school without providing any personal information or being required to register at our Site. However, you may not be able to access all parts of our Site or interact with us online without supplying personal information. For example, you may need to provide us with your personal information in order to complete online forms or applications. If you ask to receive additional information, we will ask you to provide us with your personal information so we can contact you to respond to your request. We also will receive your personal information if you submit it to us when you e-mail comments to the Site or if you complete surveys on our Site.
What kind of personal information does the School collect and how does it collect it?
The type of information collected and held by the School includes (but is not limited to) personal information, including sensitive information, about:
• Students and parents and/or guardians before, during and after the course of a student’s enrolment at the School;
• job applicants, staff members, volunteers and contractors; and
• other people who come into contact with the School.
Personal Information you provide: The School will generally collect personal information held about an individual by way of forms filled out by parents or students, face-to-face meetings and interviews, electronic communications and telephone calls. On occasions, people other than parents and students provide personal information.
Personal Information provided by other people: In some circumstances, the School may be provided with personal information about an individual from a third party, for example a report provided by a medical professional or a reference from another school. Exception in relation to employee records: Under the Privacy Act, where State or Central health privacy legislation applies, we are still required to protect the privacy of employee health information. This Privacy Policy will apply in those circumstances.
3. Use of Information. We do not disclose any of your personal information to anyone, other than to our affiliates, except as permitted by law, such as to our attorneys, and certain service providers, such as third-party web site hosts. We will only release information about you if you direct us to do so, if compelled to do so by law or in connection with any government or self-regulatory organization request or investigation. We may also disclose information you provide to us to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf. If such a disclosure is made, we will require such third-parties to treat your private information with confidentiality.
How will the School use the personal information you provide?
The School will use personal information collected from you for the primary purpose of the collection, and for such other secondary purposes that are related to the primary purpose of collection and reasonably expected, or to which you have consented. Students and Parents: In relation to personal information of students and parents, our primary purpose of collection is to enable us to provide schooling for the student. This includes satisfying both the needs of parents and the needs of the student throughout the whole period the student is enrolled at Discover First Step School.
The purposes for which the School uses personal information of students and parents include:
• to keep parents informed about matters related to their child's schooling, through correspondence, newsletters and magazines;
• day-to-day administration;
• looking after students’ educational, social and medical wellbeing;
• seeking donations and marketing for the School;
• to satisfy the School's legal obligations and allow it to discharge its duty of care.
In some cases where the School requests personal information about a student or parent and the information requested is not provided, the School may not be able to enroll or continue the enrolment of the student.
Job applicants, staff members and contractors: In relation to personal information of job applicants, staff members and contractors, the primary purpose of collection is to assess and (if successful) to engage the applicant, staff member or contractor, as the case may be.
• The purposes for which the School uses the personal information of job applicants, staff members and contractors include: in administering the individual's employment or contract, as the case may be;
• for insurance purposes;
• seeking funds and marketing for the School;
• to satisfy the School's legal obligations, for example, in relation to child protection legislation.
Volunteers: The School also obtains personal information about volunteers who assist the School in its functions or conduct associated activities, such as the Parents and Friends Association, Friends of Performing Arts and the Old Scholars Association to enable the School and the volunteers to work together.
Marketing and Fundraising: The School treats marketing and seeking donations for the future growth and development of the School as an important part of ensuring that the School continues to be a quality learning environment for both students and staff. Personal information held by the School may be disclosed to an organisation that assists in the School's fundraising.
Parents, staff, contractors and other members of the wider School community may from time to time receive fundraising information. School publications, like newsletters and magazines, which include personal information, may be used for marketing purposes.
4. Shared Aggregating Data. We may share aggregate, statistical and other non-personal information with certain other third-parties with which we have a relationship. For example, we may share aggregate information or statistics obtained from the use of "cookies" or information you provide us as described above, which does not identify you personally, such as user volume and demographics, click-stream patterns and the domain name of the site from which visitors are connecting. Always remember that the choice to provide us with your personal information is your own and you can elect not to access portions of the Site or use Site features that would require you to submit your personal information to us on our Site.
Who might the School disclose personal information to?
The School may disclose personal information, including sensitive information, held about an individual to:
• another school;
• government departments;
• medical practitioners;
• people providing services to the School, including specialist visiting teachers and sports coaches;
• recipients of School publications, like newsletters and magazines;
• Parents; and
• anyone you authorise the School to disclose information to.
Sending information overseas: The School will not send personal information about an individual outside India without: be; • for insurance purposes; • seeking funds and marketing for the School; • to satisfy the School's legal obligations, for example, in relation to child protection legislation. Volunteers: The School also obtains personal information about volunteers who assist the School in its functions or conduct associated activities, such as the Parents and Friends Association, Friends of Performing Arts and the Old Scholars Association to enable the School and the volunteers to work together. Marketing and Fundraising: The School treats marketing and seeking donations for the future growth and development of the School as an important part of ensuring that the School continues to be a quality learning environment for both students and staff. Personal information held by the School may be disclosed to an organisation that assists in the School's fundraising. Parents, staff, contractors and other members of the wider School community may from time to time receive fundraising information. School publications, like newsletters and magazines, which include personal information, may be used for marketing purposes. 4. Shared Aggregating Data. We may share aggregate, statistical and other non-personal information with certain other third-parties with which we have a relationship. For example, we may share aggregate information or statistics obtained from the use of "cookies" or information you provide us as described above, which does not identify you personally, such as user volume and demographics, click-stream patterns and the domain name of the site from which visitors are connecting. Always remember that the choice to provide us with your personal information is your own and you can elect not to access portions of the Site or use Site features that would require you to submit your personal information to us on our Site. Who might the School disclose personal information to? The School may disclose personal information, including sensitive information, held about an individual to: • another school; • government departments; • medical practitioners; • people providing services to the School, including specialist visiting teachers and sports coaches; • recipients of School publications, like newsletters and magazines; • Parents; and • anyone you authorise the School to disclose information to. Sending information overseas: The School will not send personal information about an individual outside India without:
• obtaining the consent of the individual (in some cases this consent will be implied); or
• otherwise complying with the Indian Privacy Laws.
How does the School treat sensitive information?
In referring to 'sensitive information', the School means: information relating to a person's racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion, trade union or other professional or trade association membership, sexual preferences or criminal record, that is also personal information; and health information about an individual.
Sensitive information will be used and disclosed only for the purpose for which it was provided or a directly related secondary purpose, unless you agree otherwise, or the use or disclosure of the sensitive information is allowed by law.
5. Security. We are very concerned with the safety and security of your sessions on our Site, the information you provide us online, and any transactions you conduct with us online. We have implemented and maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards consistent with industry standard protocol to help guard your nonpublic personal information, including to protect against the loss, misuse, interception, access and alteration of information you send us. We restrict access to nonpublic personal information about you to those of our employees and our agents who need to know the information to enable us to provide our services to you and we emphasize to them the importance of maintaining the security, confidentiality and integrity of your personal information.
Management and security of personal information
Our staff members are required to respect the confidentiality of students and Parents' personal information and the privacy of individuals. The School has in place steps to protect the personal information that it holds from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure by use of various methods including locked storage of paper records and access rights to computerised records controlled by passwords. Access to the School’s information is restricted to employees who require the information to provide our services to you.
Notification of Data Breach
If the School discloses your personal information without your permission and not in accordance with this policy, and such breach is likely to result in serious harm, we shall notify you. If there is unauthorised access to our information systems and this breach is likely to result in harm, we shall notify you.
This notification will include a description of the breach, the kinds of information concerned and the steps to be taken as a result of the breach.
Updating personal information
The School endeavours to ensure that the personal information it holds is accurate, complete and up-to-date. A person may seek to update their personal information held by us by contacting the office staff of the School at any time. The Indian Privacy Laws & Acts require the School not to store personal information longer than necessary.
You have the right to check what personal information the School holds about you
Under the Privacy Policy, an individual has the right to obtain access to any personal information which the School holds about them and to advise the School of any perceived inaccuracy. There are some exceptions to this right, set out in the Act. Students will generally have access to their personal information through their Parents, but older students may seek access themselves.
To make a request to access any information the School holds about you or your child, please contact the School in writing. The School may require you to verify your identity and specify what information you require. We may charge a fee to cover the cost of verifying your application and locating, retrieving, reviewing and copying any material requested. If the information sought is extensive, the School will advise the likely cost in advance.
Consent and rights of access to the personal information of students
The School respects every Parent's right to make decisions concerning their child's education.
Generally, the School will refer any requests for consent and notices in relation to the personal information of a student to the student’s Parents. The School will treat the consent given by Parents as consent given on behalf of the student, and notice to Parents will act as notice given to the student.
Parents may seek access to personal information held by the School about them or their child by contacting the School. However, there will be occasions when access is denied. Such occasions would include where release of the information would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others, or where the release may result in a breach of the School's duty of care to the student.
The School may, at its discretion, on the request of a student; grant that student access to information held by the School about them, or allow a student to give or withhold consent to the use of their personal information, independently of their Parents. This would normally be done only when the maturity of the student and/or the student's personal circumstances so warrants.
6. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. We comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 ("COPPA"). COPPA requires that web site operators never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without requesting verifiable parental consent. In accordance with COPPA, we do not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. We recommend that no one under the age of 18 submit personally identifiable information to our Site. In the event that we determine that a user of this Site is under the age of 13, we will not maintain or use his or her personally identifiable information.
7. Cookies. Visitors to our Site should be aware that non-personal information and data may be automatically collected by our Site through the use of "cookies." "Cookies" are small pieces of data sent to your computer browser from our web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. The data identifies you as a unique user and facilitates your ongoing access to and use of the Site. Cookies are used by us to recognize repeat visitors, frequency of visitor use, store user preferences, and to track information and usage behavior. By tracking user trends and patterns of how people search, we can better understand our user base. This helps us deliver better and more personalized services, improve the content and administration of our Site, facilitate use of our Site by visitors and generally enhance your online experience when you visit our Site. Cookies also help us to diagnose problems with our server. We use "cookie" technology only to compile aggregate data about your visits to our Site and not to obtain personal information. We may use this information to collect demographic information and develop statistics about our user base. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to block all cookies from being loaded onto your computer or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Please be aware, however, that refusing cookies can affect the performance of web sites and cause some parts of our Site to not function properly.
8. Hyperlinks. This Site contains hyperlinks or "links" to other sites, and other sites may "link" to this Site. Web sites linking to and from this Site may have different privacy practices from the ones described here. We are not responsible for the data collection, privacy and information sharing polices and procedures or the content of such web sites. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Site.
9. Enquiries. If you would like further information about the way the School manages the personal information it holds, or If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this Site, or your dealings with this Site, please feel free to contact the School directly.
10. Change of policy
We reserve the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions from this policy at any time so you are encouraged to review this policy from time to time. We will, of course, notify you of any changes where, if, we are required to do so.